Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes #1)

Theres a lot to really like about Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, theres Trisha Raje and her delightful, beautiful family and the wonderful aroma of the foods featured on the pages, but, sadly, for me, so much of the story got bogged down by an exceptionally angry hero.

Having never read a book from Sonali Dev before-but knowing her Indian background-I picked up Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, looking forward to a culturally-rich story that played off one of my favorite novels of all time. Meeting the Raje family was a delight and they met every expectation I had, from the stoic and proper father to the loving grandmother who counted the days between visits from her grandchildren. Dev brought these people to life and I missed them as soon as I closed the book, especially Trisha.

Trisha Raje is one of my favorite characters that Ive read in the last few months. A brilliant surgeon who may or may not be on the spectrum, shes justifiably arrogant about her abilities and completely insecure in her interactions with anyone who isnt related to her by blood. Despite a self-imposed isolation from many family activities after a bad choice on her part years ago that almost destroyed her brothers political career, shes dedicated to her family, loves them unconditionally, appreciates good food, and is loyal to a fault. Her passion for medicine and healing pulsates off the page, but its her vulnerability outside of the operating room that really resonated with me. Dev wrote her perfectly.

While Trisha wears the role of Darcy in this retelling of Pride and Prejudice (and does so brilliantly), its Chef Darcy DJ Caine that takes on the poorer, looked down upon persona of Elizabeth Bennett. Its in DJ that the book loses its ability to entertain and instead becomes a harsh lesson on what it means to be brown or black in todays America and a severe scolding of the western world in general. While I expected this to a degree, after all it is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, DJs anger and resentment hovers on every page like a dark cloud, making it almost impossible for me, as a reader, to empathize with him. Instead I found myself wanting to skip the pages that he narrated. And, while I own that my response to DJ may reflect my own life experiences, I was more bothered that his anger and resentment stalled out the overall story, both his own journey and his relationship with Trisha. Its not until the 65% mark that DJ starts to look internally at his own prejudices and, had I not been reviewing, I would have put down the book long before this. Which would have been a shame because once he recognized how hed misjudged Trisha and started to see his life through different lenses, he became very likable and the book took off.

Overall, I enjoyed Sonali Dev’s writing and her depiction of Indian-American culture. As the daughter of an immigrant, this is something that I can relate to so easily and I look forward to reading more of her work.

What a bore this book was. Seriously, it started out interestingly — I liked that we had a smart (genius!) heroine with an important job and a “mysterious” background trauma that has her estranged from her family. But it went downhill very fast and the characters never got any depth — it read like a story board and it was impossible to connect with any of them. The whole “hired help” thing was beaten to death; it was repeated over and over and over. The romance part of this story just didn’t click and it didn’t help to have those two words repeated endlessly. The chip on DJ’s shoulder was more like a boulder and weighed down any possibility of feeling the “romance.”
One other important point: did an editor even look at this book? The similes used are ridiculous, heavy and take one out of the story. Surely a good editor would have done something about this, or at least cut down on the number.
Finally, and probably most importantly, there are too many issues crammed into this one book; it is exhausting to read and felt contrived.
I will not be reading any other works by this author.

There were moments I liked DJ (or Darcy so you know this is Austen centric) and Trisha but more often and not I found that they were just too into theirselves to be very likeable. And throw in a dose of prejudice on both sides, and I found myself cringing a lot. The story itself is gut-wrenching emotional–DJ’s sister has a choice of dying by cancer or going blind and she’s a visual artist. DJ needs big jobs to pay for her surgery and Trisha is the surgeon. And of course there’s Ms. Wickham (Julia) who you know is evil by name but the mystery is how is she evil. The plot twists are interesting as each character deals with issues, or rather Issues, arising from family failings. Of course, the problem are “them,” not their pride or prejudice. It all works out without therapy. And BTW, there’s the penultimate Darcy/Lizzie scene in modern awkwardness, that just left me feeling awkward for both characters. So the two stars for characters versus a four star for story, I’ve settled on 3 stars. And for the record, I really really missed Austen’s humour; this was so serious about the issues of pride and prejudice, I never got the laughs that made the original so delightful.

Loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, this romance is still a strong story on its own. Trisha Raje is a brilliant neurosurgeon who specializes in microsurgery very cutting edge, struggling with her relationships in her Indian family. Emma Caine is an artist who needs surgery for a tumor but is reluctant to proceed because she will live but go blind. Her brother, D.J., is an exceptional chef. They are Indian-African-British. With role reversals from Austins book, Trisha is from the rich, powerful family and D.J. is the less affluent.

The book is richly written with many layers of characters, issues and story lines. It also looks at current concerns for racial relationships in American and the Me, Too movement without getting bogged down in either issue or treating them casually. And the depth of feelings and emotions about family and misunderstandings within relationships is key to this story. My only complaint is the use of similar names for minor yet important characters which made keeping them straight in the readers mind, at least in mine, a bit daunting. Overall, a rich and enjoyable read.

I loved this book, it was probably the best P&P adaptation Ive ever read. The flip of the two main characters (the heroine is Darcy!) was a wonderful twist and worked so well with the characters and their positions. Everyone was fully realized, and their issues were genuine. I loved the diversity of the characters, and the richness of their backgrounds.
Ill be honest, I had a hard time getting into it at first. It is slow at first, and the initial meetings for each character are difficult to read at first. Then again, it wasnt easy to read the same of Austens original, no matter how it turns out in the end. That is the name of the book, literally. As well, there was a bit of inconsistency with the characters, as if the writer was figuring out who they were for the first few chapters. It did all balance as it went on, and in spite of the foibles, the struggles of the characters are genuine, and realistic. It all works. (Additional note, I really related to the H, though I couldnt say exactly what drew me in.)
I loved the build up, and the last 25% had me tearing up. I just loved it, loved going along for the ride, and am genuinely looking forward to reading more of the series.

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